1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus capable of reusing once used printed paper by cleaning, and a printer and erasable paper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the recent so-called OA (Office Automation) trend, printer paper and copying paper have come to be used in a massive quantity. Accordingly, it has led to a problem of damage to the global environment by collecting forest trees. Conventionally, regarding this issue, the ink was removed from the waste paper, and it was immersed and regenerated into recycled paper. Recently, however, a cleaning method of easily removing the characters and images on a once used paper was developed. The detail is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application of publication No. 63-128946 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/357,597. According to this invention, using a paper having the surface treated with a releasing agent (i.e.-an erasable paper), printing is effected on it, and the printing is covered with a molten heat-soluble resin (cleaning agent) for cleaning, and it is cooled to remove the printing of the characters and images together with the heat-soluble resin. This method is very effective, and the paper with releasing treatment may be used hundreds of times repeatedly, and by using the printing ink in the same material as the heat-soluble cleaning agent, the cleaning agent may be also used hundreds of times. It is very economical, and the forest resources are not destroyed. In this method of cleaning the erasable paper, since heating and cooling are repeated, it took a long time in the cleaning process, and the processing speed was limited. Besides, the loss of heat energy was significant.